Miller, Gerald Eugene
Army Master sergeant

Gerald Eugene Miller from Oklahoma, Oklahoma county.

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Thursday, November 2, 1950
Death details: During the last week of October 1950, Republic of Korea (ROK) Army forces under the control of the U.S. Eighth Army were advancing deep in North Korean territory, approaching the Yalu River on the Chinese-Korean border. Chinese Communist Forces (CCF) struck back in a surprise attack, engaging the ROK 1st and 6th Divisions near Unsan, some sixty miles north of Pyongyang. The U.S. 1st Cavalry Division, with the 8th Cavalry Regiment in the lead, was rushed forward to reinforce the ROK units in the Unsan area. On November 1, the regiment’s 1st Battalion took up positions north of Unsan, while the 2nd Battalion moved to guard the Nammyon River valley west of town, and the 3rd Battalion was placed in reserve at the valley’s southern end. Master Sergeant Gerald Eugene Miller, who joined the U.S. Army from Oklahoma, was a member of Headquarters Company, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division. By midnight on November 1, 1950, the 8th Cavalry Regiment was forced to withdraw from the Unsan area to avoid encirclement by the enemy. Master Sergeant Miller was part of a group of men ordered to perform traffic control at a critical road junction on the withdraw route, south of Unsan. Early in the morning on November 2, the CCF blocked the road south, causing traffic at the road junction to stall. Master Sergeant Miller was captured during the fighting that broke out at the junction. Returning prisoners of war reported that MSG Miller died at Camp 5, a prison camp in Pyoktong, North Korea, on April 27, 1951. His remains have not been recovered or identified among those returned to U.S. custody after the war. Today, Master Sergeant Miller is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency